Well personally I've never given out a merit. I can't speak to how often the mods hand them out; I don't know if they have a guideline for how to give them out or how many to give, etc.

Merits will probably be a little different for AG3, as the activity/achievement feeds will supersede the current comment threading to a large degree. I imagine we'll attempt to migrate the merited comments for a game on AG2 to AG3 as a separate feed of "game reviews" so we filter out the two-word "good game" responses, and retain the ability to show our users the best comments about a game.

1. Do mods and admins give merits out less frequently now? I haven't been here that long (joined in April) but I've heard that you guys used to give out 1 or 2 merits per game.

You don't know that, now do you?

I imagine we'll attempt to migrate the merited comments for a game on AG2 to AG3 as a separate feed of "game reviews" so we filter out the two-word "good game" responses, and retain the ability to show our users the best comments about a game

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So that idea WAS worth merit! Anything that promotes more reviews is a good idea in my opinion.

What about the amount of points given to a merit? Is 25 still enough, or would it be plausible to bump it up a notch?

I have recently rediscovered that the merit standards used to be drastically low compared to now.. Back then we had Merit Recognition, where people would nominate others for merits. Thus, I can easily see how people like the Merit King could of gotten 145 or so merits from game reviews alone. However, sometime in late 2008 the standards were bumped up and Merit Recogntion was taken down due to sockpuppet abuse. Apparently the admins didn't take a liking to some users nominating themselves for merits with sockpuppet accounts.

These days, one can get a merit from several competitions going on in the AMW. Game merits are given out infrequently and the moderators themselves have said this. Debate merits don't exist anymore.

My opinion in the end is that we ought to actually get merits for game reviews. That's pretty much all I want.

Thus, I can easily see how people like the Merit King could of gotten 145 or so merits from game reviews alone

I do not think that Nick's merit comments were of any less standard that what merit worthy today, I think that just because there were less people around - and more active mods, the better comments stood out...

@knight_34, Getting merits for game reviews is certainly what we're hoping for, provided that they're well-written and thorough reviews. We want to curb people's appetite for posting "good game lulz" sorts of reviews, because those aren't helpful by any means.

How exactly this will work in AG3 is still being worked out. We should have an update on it in a few weeks.

About reviews. I think that there should be a seperate section for game reviews only. Like the people that want there review to stand out could post it there. Plus, have something like the top three rated reviews at the top of the section. Then the mods would have an easier time picking out merit worthy reviews.

Rated reviews? I thought we were discussing how that was sockpuppetry, Sam

But yeah, I like the thought of separating the reviews from the regular comments. Why? It saves mods time, for all the effort that they do to find reviews as it is. Game developers can just look at the reviews if they want some good feedback, instead of skimming the entire archive of comments. ITS INJENIOUS!

About reviews. I think that there should be a seperate section for game reviews only. Like the people that want there review to stand out could post it there. Plus, have something like the top three rated reviews at the top of the section. Then the mods would have an easier time picking out merit worthy reviews.

I like this Idea...

Finally, good reviews will actually be seen now

Yep , Now if people make good reviews they will get awarded merits finally.

I see so many good reviews go down comment by comment because of bad reviews that just say "Bad".

Will forum posts be able to receive merits? I know for poetry contests and their ilk, it would be more constructive to receive merits on the actual poem itself than to get a random comment on a mod's Messenger merited.

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